UConn-Stamford to hold conference on ‘blank check companies’
STAMFORD — At its Stamford campus, the University of Connecticut will host a conference Thursday afternoon focused on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, which have become an increasingly common vehicle for firms to become publicly traded.
The conference in the GenRe Auditorium, in UConn’s academic building at 1 University Place, will feature financial industry professionals, regulators and scholars who will share insights on SPACs, which comprise publicly traded companies created to pool funds to acquire or merge with private firms. They are also known as “blank check companies.” When acquisitions or mergers are completed, the private firms become publicly traded — a process that offers an alternative to initial public offerings.
“This is the topic of the year in the financial markets,” UConn Professor Yiming Qian, the Toscano Family chair in finance at UConn, said in a statement. “SPAC is not new, but was not popular until last year. Before 2020, the annual numbers of SPAC IPOs were in one or two digits. In 2020, however, the number jumped to 248, compared to 165 traditional IPOs. The number for 2021 already exceeded 500.”
Among the most-prominent firms to become publicly traded with the support of a SPAC is Stamford-based health care information provider Sema4. In July, the company completed its process of going public, achieving a valuation of about $3 billion.
“The growth is intriguing. It is not clear what exactly is driving the sudden growth of this phenomenon,” Qian said. “There has also been heated debate about the pros and cons of SPACs. Proponents argue that it gives private companies an additional channel to go public and offers public investors the opportunity to invest early in a startup company. In the meantime, there are concerns of inadequate disclosure compared to traditional IPOs. There is also wide dispersion in terms of post-merger performance.”
Conference speakers will include:
• Yiming Qian, Toscano Family chair in finance and professor at UConn
• Jay Ritter, Joseph B. Cordell eminent scholar and professor of finance at the University of Florida
• George Barrios, founder and co-CEO of Isos Capital Management and a UConn alumnus
• John Coates, the John F. Cogan Jr. professor of law and economics at Harvard Law School
• Michael Brooder, managing partner of Marcum
• Kevin Rakin, co-founder of HighCape Capital
• Matt McCooe, CEO of Connecticut Innovations
The event will run from 1 to 4 p.m., followed by an hour of networking. More information on the conference can be found online.